Service is more vital than the activity

Once Srila Prabhupada said that everything is within the boundary walls of the Krishna Balaram temple, and we see that Vibhu- Chaitnaya who was the deity cook, had joined shortly after the opening. Everything was cooked by him for almost 20 years, which meant a lot; all the offerings; all the mangal aarti sweets; and all special sweets, since he was the only cook. So he was always in the kitchen, and he would always walk from his room to the kitchen and back…..and that was it, since you never saw him anywhere else. That was his life.

One day he became very ill, and his legs were swollen and he couldn’t do it any more and he stayed in his room. He was really frustrated because he couldn’t do his service. I was the temple president at the time, and I told him:

“Look what can be done? You will have to take another service because the essence with service is that, it is not the activity, but the service to Krishna that counts! So just start handing out the Caraṇāmṛta”.

So as he sat down……it took him some days to surrender…. but he did it! So as he sat there, he would give everyone Caraṇāmṛta, and he made it a whole thing. He had special mini cups for the Sanyasis, and everyone would first get a tulsi leave on his hand, followed by the Caraṇāmṛta. It was a whole thing and he made it into a quite a service, because he was always cooking for the deities.

Some devotees also said:

We don’t think he is chanting his rounds because he is always cooking”.

And Prabhupada said:

“You chant your rounds, he doesn’t have to chant his rounds, let him just cook”.

He was chanting as I saw him many times chanting in his room but they were making these comments and Prabhupada would just say:

“He doesn’t have to chant his rounds because he is a pure devotee”.

So, everyone who knew him had always appreciated that he really was. Therefore, he had no interest to even go outside the walls of the temple. So we don’t need much space, since one can serve Krishna unlimitedly even in a small space. Therefore there is no need to be frustrated it is just due to material desires that’s all!